Journal of Threatened Taxa |
www.threatenedtaxa.org | 26 August 2022 | 14(8): 21749–21750
ISSN 0974-7907 (Online) | ISSN 0974-7893
(Print)
https://doi.org/10.11609/jott.8021.14.8.21749-21750
#8021 | Received 18 May 2022 | Final received
07 July 2022 | Finally accepted 23 July 2022
First report of the
mymarid genus Proarescon Huber (Hymenoptera: Chalcidoidea: Mymaridae) from
India
Ayyavu Athithya
1 & Sagadai
Manickavasagam 2
1,2 Parasitoid Taxonomy
and Biocontrol laboratory, Department of Entomology, Faculty of Agriculture,
Annamalai University, Chidambaram, Tamil Nadu 608002, India.
1 umasaki12728@gmail.com
(corresponding author), 2 drmanicks2003@yahoo.co.in
Editor: Anonymity requested. Date of publication: 26 August
2022 (online & print)
Citation: Athithya, A. & S. Manickavasagam (2022). First report of the mymarid genus Proarescon Huber (Hymenoptera: Chalcidoidea:
Mymaridae) from India. Journal of Threatened
Taxa 14(8): 21749–21750. https://doi.org/10.11609/jott.8021.14.8.21749-21750
Copyright: © Athithya & Manickavasagam 2022. Creative Commons
Attribution 4.0 International License. JoTT allows unrestricted use, reproduction, and
distribution of this article in any medium by providing adequate credit to the
author(s) and the source of publication.
Funding: Annamalai University.
Competing interests: The authors
declare no competing interests.
Acknowledgements: The authors are
thankful to Dr. John T. Huber, Canadian National collections of Insects,
Arachnids and Nematodes, Ottawa, Canada for confirming the identity of mymarid
and also for providing the relevant literatures on these parasitoids.
Members of the family
Mymaridae are called fairyflies and are generally egg
parasitoids (except two species) attacking eggs of agriculturally important
insects (for details refer Huber (1986) & Huber et al. (2006)). This family
is represented by 1,490 described species under 119 genera globally (Noyes
2019) of which only 39 genera and 232 species are known from India (Athithya & Manickavasagam
2022a). Surveys are being conducted across India to locate other mymarid fauna
reported elsewhere but not from India. One such survey uncovered Proarescon primitivus
(Huber) which is being reported here for the first time from India.
Since 2010, we have
been conducting surveys specifically for recovering chalcidoid
parasitoids from Western Ghats of Kerala state. Parasitoids were collected
using yellow pan traps and pitfall traps and mymarids were sorted out and
stored in 70% alcohol at -20 0C. Mymarids were subsequently
diagnosed after dissection following Noyes (1982) and Huber (2015). After
mounting, images of the mounted parts were captured using a DMC 2900 camera
linked to a Leica DM750 phase contrast microscope. The united Zip software was
used to obtain stacked images which were further processed using Adobe
Photoshop version 7.0.
Proarescon primitivus
(Huber) (Image 1a–d): (Type species: Borneomymar
primitivum Huber, 2002). Later primitivum was transferred from Borneomymar
to a new genus Proarescon by Huber (2017) and
the species was named as P. primitivus.
Members belonging to the genus Proarescon
(Huber) can be diagnosed using the characters: 1. Funicle 8-segmented; 2. clava entire and gradually narrowing apically to a point
(Image 1b); 3. Fore wing microtrichia more densely spaced except for an oval
area along posterior margin (Image 1c,d).
Proarescon is represented only
by two species globally (P. primitivus and P.
similis Huber, 2017) of which the species in
study belongs to P. primitivus that can be
diagnosed using the characters: clava 3.3 times as
long as wide, with ventral margin almost straight, cubital line in fore wing
extending proximally almost to level of proximal macrochaeta (Image 1a).
Material examined:
08.v.2019, two females with Entomology Department, Annamalai University
(EDAU/Mym41/2022). One female on slide under five coverslips, another female on
slide under two cover slips, labelled, India: Kerala, Western Ghats (10.77N;
77.06E), pitfall trap, forest floor, coll. Prasanth.
Distribution: India
(new record); Indonesia (Huber 2002) and Thailand (Huber 2017).
Recently Athithya & Manickavasagam
(2022b) proposed a key to diagnose the generic group initially, followed by
diagnosing the particular genus within that generic group to reduce
misidentification. In this key, Proarescon
fits in Arescon group of genera under couplet
4. Now this genus group is known by two genera (Arescon
and Proarescon). However, Proarescon
can be differentiated from Arescon as shown in
generic diagnosis (in Arescon, funicle
6-segmented, clava entire but not narrowing to a
pointed apex and fore wing microtrichia bare to densely setose
but without a specific oval area in the posterior margin).
For image - -
click here for full PDF
References
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